This week's newswire contains a reminder of next Tuesday's Disaster Recovery Planning workshop with presenters from the National Conference of CPA Practitioners. Please take an hour on Tuesday to join us in this timely and informative workshop!

The Boards of Directors of two of the leading North American accounting firm networks - TAG International and AGN International-North America, Inc. - announced the merger of the North American memberships of these two associations into one effective January 1, 2002.

The Big Five firm has taken a significant step to increase female representation at high levels, a commitment it made publicly earlier this year with the release of a long-range plan for women's advancement called Vision 2005.

The IRS is encouraging all employers to inform employees now of this new tax saving procedure which becomes effective January 1, 2002. Employees can begin planning now to take advantage of this tax break.

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Developing connections between practices and introducing innovative new service areas can help small- and medium-sized practitioners extend their global presence, the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC) has urged.

Visit the AccountingWEB IndustryZONE for the latest news, links, and information on Automobile Dealerships, Banking, Construction, Healthcare, Law Firms, Manufacturing, Real Estate, Retail, and State & Local Governments.

The proposals, which would affect employers granting such options and employees exercising the options, provide guidance concerning the application of the Federal Insurance Contributions Act (FICA), the Federal Unemployment Tax Act (FUTA) and Collection of Income Tax at Source to the options.

PricewaterhouseCoopers has launched the latest edition of the firm's ValueReporting Forecast which finds that major global corporations are leaving behind traditional financial reporting disciplines to implement more transparent and informative performance indicators. ValueReporting has become a crusade for the Big Five firm.

Senior executives from 26 leading financial service companies said that since they have outsourced major parts of their operations they appreciated the short-term cost saving, but admitted that it could mean a loss of control in their relationship with the customer.

ACCOUNTINGWEB Q&A FORUM

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Here is a sample of the questions that have been posted this week. Check out all the questions at our Q&A Forum and see if you can lend a hand.

Tax accounting requires costs associated with a loan, such as attorney's fees, to be amortized over the life of the loan. Does GAAP also make this requirement? If so, what is the pronouncement?